Our final update from Malawi!

We both still can’t quite believe it is real that next week (12^th) we get on 3 planes and make our way back to a new season of England being our home and our base.

 

We are looking forward to re-connecting with our friends and family. For the first 2 months we will be using Milton Keynes as our base. We would love to catch up with you so drop us a message to get something in the diary. Here are our dates as they currently stand:

 

13^th July – 25^th July – Milton Keynes

Sunday 21^st July @ 4pm – You are invited to join us to hear testimonies and stories from Malawi.  Location Milton Keynes; please let us know if you would like to join us.

29^th July – 2^nd August – Lincoln

3^rd August – 15^th August Milton Keynes

23^rd August – 26^th August – David’s Tent

27^th August – 15^th September – Milton Keynes 
 

A common question we are asked is ‘What’s Next?’……..As the last 3.5 years have been an adventure of trusting in Father, He is again using this transition as a lesson in trusting in Him and He’s not yet given us all of the answers. What He has made very clear is that the foundation of our future ministry for the both of us is going to be centred on the Father Heart message, our identity as children of God, inner healing and living in the freedom that Christ won for us. We are excited about this as we are both very passionate about this message as we have seen it transform our and others lives. As we shared in our last update we know Father has a new location for us in England, we would appreciate your prayers as we seek confirmation of this upon our return.  
 

As this Blog is focused upon our time here in Malawi, we will not be updating it in the future. If you would still like to pray for us and keep up to date with our adventures with God we intend to send out 2-3 email updates a year. If you would like to receive these please ensure we have your current email address.

 

And finally we thought we would end this update with a reflection over our time living in Malawi.  
 

Whilst we have had the privilege of ministering here and have been blown away by what Father has done and the fruit we have seen, the most important thing we are both taking away from this season is what He has done in our lives and how much we have grown in Him.  
 

One of our biggest and most challenging lessons has been letting go and trusting Father more. In England if you are sick we have the NHS, if your car breaks down we call the recovery company, we had jobs bringing in our income, in an emergency you can call 999. None of these things exist in Malawi and when faced with that reality in your life the only remaining option is to trust in Father in a way that we personally never did before moving here. If we are sick, we pray (the closest decent healthcare is South Africa), if our car breaks down we pray, if we have an emergency we pray, we don’t have salaries, we pray! And as we look back, as challenging as this lesson has been as Father has removed our independence to depending on Him and allowing Him to fully be our Father, we can honestly say He has never ever let us down, every need has always been met (maybe not always in our preferred timing!)

 

Another valuable lesson we have learnt in our time here is that Father isn’t looking first and foremost at what we can do for Him, but rather our relationship with Him and resting in that. There are so so many needs in Malawi it is easy to become overwhelmed with ‘what can I do?’ But Father asks us to do what we see Him doing. We have learnt when opportunities came our way not to immediately say Yes but to stop and take time to ask Him, Father is this opportunity from you? We have been presented with numerous opportunities which on paper looked a perfect fit for us, but Father said no, they were not from Him. It’s been a valuable lesson and one we intend to carry on with.

 

That’s just a few snippets of lessons we have learnt, there are many more!  
 

We would value your prayers in this time of transition, as we say our Goodbyes here, are busy tying loose ends up here and doing the organising that comes with moving to another country. We would also value your prayers for our journey; due to our local airport’s main runway being closed our travel time is now 24 hours with 3 flights, we would love to make each flight along with all of our suitcases!

Thank you to all of you who have prayed, invested financially, stayed in touch, visited, supported us during our visits to England in many different ways, we appreciate you all so much.

 

With all of our love

Mark and Laura